History was created last week and it wasn't the exposure of crime and corruption in the construction industry. That is, after all, an old story. Rather, it was the fact that unions and their chief nemesis, the federal government construction watchdog Nigel Hadgkiss, were singing from the same hymn sheet.

Their shared proposition was simple. If an industry is breeding bribery, organised crime, extortion and rackets, the authorities - be they the police, ASIC, or the cartel cop, the ACCC - should investigate. Furthermore, the law should not distinguish between unionists or building company managers. Wherever laws are broken, they should be enforced.

But here is the rub. Policing and regulatory agencies have for years failed to enforce the law in the construction industry. As a result, it is one of the last bastions of racketeering in Australia.

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It's not as simple as simply blaming the authorities. Police are flat out directing limited resources to the most visible crime. The corruption and stand-over activity that's rife in the construction industry is mostly hidden. Those who engage in it, witness it or fall victim to it are usually reluctant to go to the police. The reason why was starkly illustrated last week, when union whistleblower Brian Fitzpatrick revealed he received a death threat from a fellow CFMEU official when he spoke out about his union's support of an organised crime figure.

The complaint from police about a lack of resources is real. The nation's peak crime fighting body, the Australian Crime Commission, has had its budget slashed by almost 10 per cent in the last three years and is struggling to keep up with international money launderers and drug importers. If it was to launch an all-out assault on the organised criminals entrenched in the building industry, the ACC would need a significant budget boost.

Ultimately, responsibility for cleaning up the building industry falls to state and federal governments. The contributions to date of Barry O'Farrell and Denis Napthine have been pathetic. Napthine's vow to drug test building workers will not stop bribery or extortion. Nor will O'Farrell's request to get the Barangaroo Delivery Authority (an agency with no police powers that is overseeing Australia's largest construction site in Sydney) to somehow investigate the gangsters working on its project.

Meanwhile, the politicians who believe the answer lies in restoring the Australian Building Construction Commission fail to remember it only has the power to investigate industrial law breaches, not bikies or bribery.

Last week, the media revealed that Victorian union organiser Danny Berardi had allegedly taken secret commissions from a building firm. Such conduct, if proven, carries a 10-year jail term. But police have shown little appetite to investigate secret commissions.

Only the union has taken firm action. Berardi resigned after being confronted by CFMEU boss John Setka. The construction corruption scandal exposed by Fairfax Media and the ABC has so far seen three union officials removed. That's more scalps than the Cole royal commission, which suggests that such commissions may struggle to hold individuals to account. Yet if the existing authorities will not act to systemically confront the industry's corruption problem, what else is left?